Tag Archives: teen girls

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) was started in 2005 by former President Bill Clinton. Each year there is a meeting to determine the initiatives and commitments to action CGI members will undertake for the coming year. Since 2005, thanks to the commitments of various businesses, nonprofit organizations, and heads of state, more than 200 million lives have been touched in 170 countries.

CGI is currently meeting in New York City and their 6th annual meeting wraps up today. One of the areas of focus for CGI is Empowering Girls and Women. On Tuesday, a new commitment was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The aim of this initiative is to cut down the toxic emissions from many of the stoves that women and girls use to cook meals for their families. The goal by 2020 is to put cleaner stovetops in 100 million homes by 2020.

The Clinton Global Initiative premiered a new video for GirlEffect on Tuesday. GirlEffect is an organization that is creating change by educating more and more 12-year-old girls who are living at or below the poverty line. By doing so, GirlEffect hopes to stop the cycle of early pregnancy and marriage, continued impoverishment, and HIV/AIDS contraction for subsequent generations of 12-year-old girls.

Tuesday also featured a panel moderated by Katie Couric composed of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the president of Liberia, Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola, and Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan. The panel focused on initiatives that would provide economic opportunities for women and educational opportunities that have arisen in Jordan where more women attend university than men now.

In Niger, nearly 80 percent of young women aged 20-24 have no formal education; by comparison 64 percent of young men have no formal education.

In Mali, only 22.5 percent of girls aged 15-24 are literate, while 36.1 percent of boys are literate.

In Somalia, 98 percent of women and adolescent girls aged 15-49 have undergone genital cutting or other mutilation. In Bangladesh, more than a third of young women currently aged 20-24 had their first child before they were 15; in Niger, 27.7 percent of young women aged 20-24 had their first child before they were 15.

In Ethiopia, there is a 1.5 percent chance that a woman who is giving birth will have skilled personnel attend her labor. In the United Kingdom, there is a one percent chance that a woman will not have a skilled attendant overseeing her labor.

In Swaziland, 22.6 percent of girls and women aged 15-24 are HIV-positive, the world’s highest percentage among young women. Lesotho has the highest global prevalence of HIV among young men aged 15-24 years – at 5.9 percent.

Girls Discovered puts extensive data on girls and women in one place and allows visitors to compare data sets. Want to know how literacy rates correspond with the prevalence of FGM? You can map that data:

Image: girlsdiscovered.org

Visit Girls Discovered to create your own maps and learn more about the issues facing teen girls worldwide.

The January 12 earthquake off the coast of Port-au-Prince has impacted an estimated 3 million Haitians, with the death toll expected to be in the tens of thousands. Emergency relief workers are having difficulty delivering aid and supplies as a result of demolished roads, buildings and other infrastructure. At Teen Voices, we hope to see the global community continue to band together and provide relief in the wake of this immense tragedy.

Teen Voices has many girls in our journalism mentoring program who have relatives and other loved ones in Haiti. On behalf of Teen Voices’ board members and staff, we send our thoughts and condolences to the girls in our program who have lost loved ones in this tragedy. We would like to remind them that, as always, our office is open if they feel we can help in any way—a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, or just a space to connect with their friends and mentors. We are thinking of you, and of teen girls around the world who have been similarly impacted by this tragedy.

Teen Voices would like to encourage anyone who is able to donate to the disaster relief efforts in Haiti. Even a small amount makes a difference, and if everyone gives a little bit, it adds up quickly.

Here are some organizations to donate to.

American Red Crossredcross.org
800-HELP-NOW
Donations can be made online. Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10.

About Teen Voices

Teen Voices is an intensive journalism mentoring and leadership development program for teen girls in Boston. Our mission is to support and educate teen girls, amplify their voices, and create social change through media.

Through this program, and with submissions from girls around the world, the teens create an internationally distributed online and print magazine by, for, and about teen girls. Teen Voices is positive and empowering, and amplifies girls' real voices in a world filled with media focused on what girls look like—not what they think. Join us at teenvoices.com!